4.3 Preview: Chromatic Dragon Pet and Loot Rule Changes

We wanted to post a few models up that Alayton found for us--mostly the Chromatic Dragon pet, which I am betting is the reward for the guild legendary for tier 13, since there already was a Deathwing pet a while ago. There are also the Lunar New Year rewards we speculated one as well as the Scarab pet from the next TCG edition (not archaeology as we had hoped).

As for the Fel Hippogryph, he's actually from the TCG (thanks to reader Nathanyel for the tip).

New Loot Rules in 4.3

In response to concerns regarding how loot will be distributed in the Raid Finder system, we are making some changes to how loot rolls will work when using the Need Before Greed system in the Raid Finder. When using Raid Finder for the Dragon Soul raid instance, players whose currently assigned class role (Tank, Healer or Damage) matches the class role that a piece of armor or a weapon is flagged for will receive +100 to their Need roll. For purposes of this check, your currently assigned role is defined as the class role you have assigned when a boss is defeated. Sound confusing? I hope not, but here’s how it’ll work:

A boss dies and drops EPIC TANKING ITEM.

A mage in the group yawns and clicks the ‘Greed’ button, getting a 98.

A Fury warrior in the group wants to take up tanking, so he rolls ‘Need’ and gets a solid 64.

Both tanks want the item. Tank 1 rolls a 12, and Tank 2 rolls a 7.

So what happens?

Because the mage rolled greed, she’s right out from the start. The Fury warrior’s Need roll was higher than the tanks’, but he was in the Damage Dealer role when the boss died, and the item is flagged for tanking, so his 64 is still just a 64 out of a possible 100. In contrast, Tank 1 and Tank 2 each get a 100 point bonus to their rolls because they were in the Tanking role when the boss died and they’re rolling on an item that has been flagged for the tanking role. That means that Tank 1 rolled a 112 out of 200, and tank 2 rolled a 107 out of 200. Tank 1 wins the item! If a roll got a bonus, that bonus will be clearly displayed in the chat log.

Please keep in mind that, at least for now, this system will only look at class role, and not player spec. This bonus isn’t only for tanking items either — it applies to Tanking, Damage Dealing and Healing items, and some items are flagged for more than one class role too. Starting out, only Dragon Soul raid items will be flagged for class roles in this way (though all of the items in the raid will be flagged for one or more roles). As you might expect, all the normal Need Before Greed rules are still in place, so that means that these roll bonuses won’t overrule normal class and usability restrictions. Item tooltips in the raid won’t reflect which class roles will get rolling bonuses, but it should be fairly obvious based on stat allocations and item type.

We are considering expanding this system to apply to the new 4.3 dungeons as well, though it is unlikely that we’ll see the system apply to older dungeons or raids for now. Also, please keep in mind that this system is newly minted, and it may see further changes before it’s released with the Raid Finder in patch 4.3.

Comments

Comment by Adamsm

Cool...though not sure how I feel about the Chromatic Whelp sharing the same model as the Celestial/Champion dragon, just the head changed a little. And liking the lanterns heh; they look pretty cool.

Also crossing the fingers that we can get our hands on the Fel Hippogryph at some point; would really love another one.

Comment by Radeghost

on 2011-10-07T11:52:06-05:00

Dragon Prince is Wrathion

Comment by Gnub

on 2011-10-07T11:52:42-05:00

Solid guess about the whelp, I'm sure that'll end up being true :)

Comment by Interest

on 2011-10-07T11:56:59-05:00

I like the Hippogryph.

The whelp should be multiple colors though =)

Comment by Radeghost

on 2011-10-07T11:58:04-05:00

Chromatic Whelp - Spirit of Competition reskin

Comment by syiforce

on 2011-10-07T12:07:31-05:00

chromatic Dragon <3

Comment by Nulgar

on 2011-10-07T12:14:49-05:00

The "Fel Hippogryph" would be , from the "Crown of Heaven" TCG edition.

Comment by Darvon

on 2011-10-07T12:15:32-05:00

I'm confused, wouldn't the Chromatic dragon be a mix of the other dragons?Looks Bronze to me

Comment by Ashelia

on 2011-10-07T12:17:49-05:00

The "Fel Hippogryph" would be , from the "Crown of Heaven" TCG edition.

Awesome, thanks for that~

Comment by Adamsm

on 2011-10-07T12:21:06-05:00

I'm confused, wouldn't the Chromatic dragon be a mix of the other dragons?Looks Bronze to me

More of a gold colour then anything else. And usually the Chromatics have been a bright red like colour, except for Chromatus who had heads from all 5 flights and a body of dead coloured scales.

The "Fel Hippogryph" would be , from the "Crown of Heaven" TCG edition.

Awesome, thanks for that~

Aw..../sad

Comment by Voltt

on 2011-10-07T12:29:49-05:00

So is Wrathion another one of Deathwing's offspring? I mean, he has to do with the dagger questline iirc and the daggers are called Fangs of the Father, again iirc. Also red eyes are a good indicator lol and also Nefarius has the same skin color.

Comment by Adamsm

on 2011-10-07T12:41:37-05:00

So is Wrathion another one of Deathwing's offspring? I mean, he has to do with the dagger questline iirc and the daggers are called Fangs of the Father, again iirc. Also red eyes are a good indicator lol and also Nefarius has the same skin color.

All Black Flight members can be considered Deathwing's offspring; same as the children of any Flight see the Aspect as their over all parent. But since Wrath is from the uncorrupted Black Flight egg in the Badlands, which is said to be a child of Deathwing, the answer is yes.

Also, I love the change to the loot rules! Here's hoping it goes into the Dungeon finder too.

Comment by Blackriver

on 2011-10-07T12:42:50-05:00

Chromatic dragons have always been pink. That's weird.

Comment by Slamdnkatron

on 2011-10-07T12:44:03-05:00

Loving the changes to the loot system, that should have been put in place at the beginning of Cataclysm. I don't get mad at video games, but it's still pretty discouraging when you've been running dungeons to get a specific piece of loot and some plate DPS yanks a tank piece out from under you, or an idiot DPS caster needs on a piece of spirit gear.

Pretty underwhelming new pets, though. Disappointing that a nifty mount is from the TCG, too.

Comment by Interest

on 2011-10-07T12:46:48-05:00

The "Fel Hippogryph" would be , from the "Crown of Heaven" TCG edition.

Damnit. Nooooooo.

(*!@#ing tcg)

Comment by Alozare

on 2011-10-07T12:47:22-05:00

Ruloes.

Also, LOVE the new loot system, no more Fury losers stealing my shields!

Comment by Interest

on 2011-10-07T12:49:28-05:00

Ruloes.

Also, LOVE the new loot system, no more Fury losers stealing my shields!

Agreed. I think that's a very nice way to make the "off-spec" rolls work as well.

Comment by Kazlehoff

on 2011-10-07T13:21:16-05:00

Well, Feral druid tanks are officially screwed on loot now.

we tank in DPS leather.

therefore, we miss out on the +100 bonus to our rolls.

a rogue rolls a 1, a druid tank rolls a 100.

Rogue still wins.

this new system is going to be TERRIBLE for Druid tanks.

Comment by nopunin10did

on 2011-10-07T13:24:05-05:00

They will probably mark all leather agility items as both tank and dps items.

Comment by Ignjatwolf

on 2011-10-07T13:27:15-05:00

I hope that they properly separate strength from agility items i.e warriors can't need on agility and trinkets and rings.